Events

PTK Kentucky Honors in Action and Leadership Conference
October 19-20

Conference Speakers

Tori Murden McClure is the president of Spalding University, in Louisville, Kentucky. Spalding continues a legacy of education and service established by the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth in 1814. Today, Spalding serves students at the bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral level.

A passionate world adventurer and humanitarian, Ms. McClure is best known as the first woman and first American to row solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She was also the first woman and first American to travel overland to the geographic South Pole, skiing 750 miles from the ice shelf to the pole. Ms. McClure has climbed on several continents and is a fully certified emergency medical technician in both urban and wilderness areas and is a graduate of the National Outdoor Leadership School having served as the chair of the board of directors.

An outspoken critic of the disparity in higher education today and always promoting the transformational power of education, Tori holds a Bachelor of Arts from Smith College, a Master of Divinity from Harvard University, and her juris doctorate from the University of Louisville’s Louis D. Brandeis School of Law. In 2005, she earned her master of fine arts in writing from Spalding University. Her non-fiction book A Pearl in the Storm was published by Harper-Collins in 2009.

Tori Murden McClure encourages individuals, particularly students at Spalding, to seek greatness through learning and to use their talents and skills to contribute to their own communities.

Kris Kimel was the founding president of the non-profit Kentucky Science and Technology Corp. and creator of the Idea Festival. For over three decades, Kimel has pushed for innovation as the way to build Kentucky’s economy for the future.

Kimel is chairman of one of the companies he helped create: Lexington-based Space Tango, a micro-gravity research company that serves clients by using the International Space Station. Kimel has a lot of ideas about how to make Kentucky more successful in the 21s century and beyond. He is an agent for change in our society.

“I think Kentucky is capable of really great things,” he said. “We just need to be able to imagine those things and go after them. We need to be far more curious, far more innovative and take on big ideas.” The meme, “Stay Curious,” was prominently advertised at Idea Festival, a 2-3 day non-stop mash up of ideas and initiatives that were presented in TED-talk style initially in Lexington and then in Louisville over all of the last decade and most of this one.

Hotel Information

Group registrations must contact the hotel with payment information to reserve rooms. Any organization that are tax exempt and paying with an organization credit card needs to contact the hotel prior to the arrival with a copy of the Kentucky tax exempt certificate.

On Friday, the conference will be held on the University of Louisville Campus in the Student Activities Center (SAC), Multi-purpose Room (MPR). Guests can park in the Floyd Street Parking garage free of charge. Look for the sign that says “Event Parking.”

On Saturday, the conference will take place at Jefferson Community and Technical College. Students will be able to park for free in the large student parking lot, which is right in front of Health Sciences Hall (marked “A South” on the map) where the conference will be located.

Regional Service Project - Support for the Ronald McDonald House
Donations in support of the Ronald McDonald House will be accepted during the conference. For detailed information on needed materials, please see this link: rmhc-kentuckiana.org/wish-list